


Elevator Music

by bluepheonix



Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Aerith is so snarky I love her, Aerith likes to tease him, Are real elevator rides this long? lmk, Canon Compliant, Cloud likes to suppress his feelings, Fluff, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:33:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24584632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluepheonix/pseuds/bluepheonix
Summary: It was a means to an end, but if someone had told Cloud this is the type of thing he’d be doing after quitting SOLDIER he would have laughed them off the face of the planet.***Cloud and Aerith have a conversation on the elevator ride to Corneo Coliseum.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough & Cloud Strife, Cloud Strife & Tifa Lockheart (mentioned)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 41





	Elevator Music

When Cloud first started his mercenary gig, he knew it would probably get him into some weird situations--but being forced to fight in a seedy underground coliseum to win a dress for a girl he’d practically just met wasn’t one of them.

True, it was a means to an end, but if someone had told him this is the type of thing he’d be doing after quitting SOLDIER he would have laughed them off the face of the planet.

_I’m doing this for Tifa,_ he reminded himself. It had been the mantra pushing him forward since he’d reunited with his estranged childhood friend a few weeks beforehand.

Well—they’d been reunited as in she’d basically saved his ass. That’s what Barret had told him anyways. Cloud was still a little hazy on the details himself, but he had a hunch that going down that mental rabbit hole would just lead to a killer headache that he really didn’t need right now.

Better to just focus on the now—he’d learned that the hard way. 

***

If Tifa’s presence was like a calming anchor, Aerith’s frenetic energy was like an invigorating shock to the system.

It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing—just different.

Said girl was twisting her hands around her simple silver staff, preoccupying herself as the coliseum’s rickity elevator dropped stories beneath the ground. The tarnished metal bracelets she wore around her wrist jangled with her restless movements. When Cloud snuck a glance her way, she was swaying back and forth; bobbing up and down to a tune only she could hear.

She looked more ready to teach a kindergarten class than fight some criminal to the death—though Cloud had quickly learned that Aerith would gleefully do both of those things.

Well maybe not _gleefully_ —but she probably had more passion for fighting than the average flower peddler.

Gods, Migdar really had the most colorful people.

“So—”

Aerith finally decided to break the comfortable silence that had settled between them, raising her voice over the elevator’s ominous creaking. Staying quiet for so long had probably taken a lot of self-restraint on her part—she tended to be unbearably chatty.

“--You do this kinda thing often?” Her voice was light and teasing, as usual.

Obviously, she wasn’t taking the situation seriously. She hadn’t even bothered changing out of her pink dress and cracked leather boots before signing up for an underground colosseum tournament. If Cloud hadn’t seen her hold her own in a fight before, he’d have figured that she’d just signed her own death warrant too.

Hell, she still just might’ve.

Cloud just answered her with a small huff. Her words filled him with a weird nervous energy—as they always seemed to do when she teased him like that. She had a talent for drawing answers out of him, no matter how noncommittal they ended up being.

Aerith seemed to take the sound Cloud made as a negative. She stretched her arms out in front of her, once again readjusting her grip on the staff.

“Yeah—me neither.”

She looked over at Cloud, lips quirking up slightly.

“S’not really the type of thing a SOLDIER would do, is it?”

“Ex-SOLDIER,” Cloud corrected automatically before he could stop himself. Sometime over the past few weeks that had become a conditioned response. It was probably halfway to becoming his catchphrase by now.

“There he is!”

Aerith’s head bobbed excitedly from side to side and the wispy curls that framed her face joined in—she was no doubt pleased about wrenching actual words out of Cloud. It wasn’t something just anyone could do.

“Y’know, when I offered you a date this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. I was thinking something more along the lines of a romantic moonlit picnic.”

Cloud groaned, cursing the familiar heat that crept into his cheeks. He cursed his pale complexion too. Thank the gods that the elevator’s flickering light was dim—he knew he’d never hear the end of it if Aerith caught him blushing.

She was a bit merciless that way.

Despite her demure and homely appearance, Aerith was a bit of an odd duck. In the short time he’d known her, Cloud couldn’t really get a read on her. Sometimes the things she said and the way she reacted were downright strange. She was brash and impulsive and caring and liked to tease everyone around her—especially Cloud.

Well, he actually hadn’t seen her tease anyone else aside from him.

Most of the time her little jabs were kinda annoying, sure, but harmless enough. Like a little fly buzzing in his face. A fly that somehow had the power to make him feel some combination of frustrated, confused, flustered, and happy at the same time. 

Gods forbid he let the emotions he’d sealed so tightly within his mind’s personal Pandora’s Box get the best of him. Not when he had something important at stake.

“You’re distracting me.” He hoped his voice was the most deadpan of all deadpans.

The impish look in Aerith’s eyes told him it hadn’t been.

“I dunno, but something about this makes me kinda excited.”

\--And she had flat out ignored him.

“You need to focus too.”

She let out a bark of laughter.

“Yessir--I’m always focused, Sir!”

She stood at attention, giving him a wobbly salute and her best serious expression—though instead of looking intimidating, her face just looked pinched. It kind of reminded him of how Tifa used to look at him back when—

Cloud jumped to the side of the elevator to avoid being smacked with the silver pole.

“Watch it!”

“Whoops—sorry about that.”

She didn’t sound very sorry at all, not while she was trying to hide a snicker behind her hand.

“It’s hard to maneuver this thing in a tight space. Let’s hope this arena’s big.”

She blew her bangs out of her eyes with an indignant puff of air.

Even the mention of battle immediately reigned in Cloud’s wayward thoughts.

It made sense that arena size would be the thing Aerith was worried about. After all, her fighting style was closer to dancing than trading physical blows with an enemy. In battle, she swung her staff in big looping and swirling motions as her materia gathered energy before channeling her magic through it for a devastating strike. Strictly fighting with ranged weaponry gave her that kind of freedom of movement.

It was interesting—Cloud wasn’t used to seeing someone who relied so heavily on magic in a fight. Tifa and Barret barely used materia at all—opting to stick to gloved fists and bullets respectively. Even Cloud himself—who had formal materia training in SOLDIER--greatly favored his sword over materia—so Aerith was something of an anomaly.

A question danced at the tip of his tounge.

“Who taught you to fight with that?”

Aerith looked confused, and then surprised. Probably because Cloud was the one asking questions for once.

“Oh, this?”

She gestured to her staff and Cloud nodded.

“Self-taught—mostly anyways. How does it feel to be talking to a combat genius?”

Despite her usual jokes, she fidgeted with the ribbon that sat atop her braid.

“It’s not a common weapon, so I was just curious.”

“Yeah. Though--,” she drew out the word, letting it linger in the stuffy elevator air. “I had a bit of help with the basics. I used to just carry plain materia to protect myself in emergencies. Someone else had to teach me to channel magic through this.”

Her eyes darted away, expression turning wistful.

Plain materia, huh? That was dangerous—especially for someone with Aerith’s magic affinity. No wonder someone wanted to teach her to use a weapon.

Hell, if Cloud had saw her doing that, he would have taught her himself.

“Self taught? Explains your bad form,” He snarked, almost on impulse.

“Hey!” Aerith gave an indignant squawk and narrowed her eyes. She shook the staff at him in a way that was probably supposed to be menacing. Or maybe admonishing. Cloud couldn’t quite tell because of the mirth dancing in her eyes, her moment of withdrawal suddenly forgotten.

“I’ll have you know that the Turks are scouting me to be the next First-Class SOLDIER.”

Good. A cool rush of relief flowed through Cloud at Aerith’s mood resetting to normal—or at least to how she usually acted around him. He wanted to bat the feeling away like a cat playing with a new toy.

He didn’t have time to deal with shit like this—Tifa was in danger and he had to win this tournament. That was what mattered right now.

Besides—as soon as they rescued Tifa, Aerith would probably become another nameless, faceless person in his past. It was pointless to let himself get this worked up about her.

Cutting his losses and moving on had gotten him this far, after all. SOLDIERs couldn’t linger on stuff like that. There was no use with getting attached to anything in that kind of life because that meant there was another thing that could be ripped away.

Though the thought of Aerith leaving--

With a jerk, the elevator finally slowed to a stop, eliciting a whoop of joy from Aerith.

“Alright, Cloud, it’s go time.”

She bounded out of the elevator, only turning back to flash Cloud a sunny smile, learning forward on the tips of her toes.

“You’ve got my back, right?”

Cloud bit back a groan and followed Aerith down the grimy hallway to the ornate coliseum doors.

Despite everything, he had a nagging feeling that he wasn’t getting rid of this girl anytime soon.


End file.
